Easton Area schools chief: Charter school applications costly, pesky

Superintendent John Reinhart would like to limit number the district receives.

March 05, 2014|By Jacqueline Palochko, Of The Morning Call

Charter school applications are time-consuming and costly for school districts, Easton Area School District Superintendent John Reinhart says.

At Tuesday's school board committee meeting, Reinhart asked the district solicitor to review the district's policy on charter school applications. The policy was last examined in 2007 and, since then, the district has seen more applications, Reinhart said.

When administrators need to read a proposed charter school application and form questions for a public hearing, it takes administrators away from their day-to-day job, Reinhart said. The district reviewed a proposed charter school application last month, and Reinhart estimated administrators put in up to 25 hours for the application.

The district also needs to obtain legal counsel when reviewing an application, at a cost of about $5,000 per application, Reinhart said.

"I'm not sure if there's anything we can do, but it's important to know this," he said.

The district is deciding whether or not to approve the Strong Foundation Charter School to open next fall. The proposed school had a public hearing last month, and the district will make a decision by March 15.

Reinhart wondered if the district could have a limit on how many applications it receives each year, to ease the burden of costs and time. Last year, the district didn't receive any, and this year it's received one so far. District solicitor John Freund said the state most likely wouldn't allow such a limit.

Reinhart also suggested the district change the wording in the policy so that a public hearing for a proposed charter school doesn't require that board members are present. Board members would still have to read over transcripts, he said, but this could help them with scheduling conflicts.

School directors Robert Fehnel and William Rider said board members should be there to represent the public.